Santa delivered to the men of 236 Kiefaber St. a present that was on the top of Christmas lists for at least 40 other UD student neighborhood houses: bragging rights for a year and a free trip to Dayton to Daytona.

About 40 houses in the student neighborhood competed Nov. 30 in the Christmas on Campus house decorating contest. A house composed of six senior males came out on top after more than twenty hours of labor, $500 worth of decorations and one electrical shock.

Brian Trafis, management information systems major, entered the contest last year after hearing about it from word of mouth. He and his housemates were not sure what the competition consisted of and waited with eggnog as the judges critiqued their house. Unfortunately, their lack of knowledge about the contest allowed other residents who performed skits in addition to decorating outshine the lights on 236 Kiefaber.

This year Trafis and his roommates, John Orbe, sports management major, John LaScola, international business major, Mike Little, accounting and finance major, Jon Andryc, finance major, and Mike Willmann, biology major, retained their house on Kiefaber and gave the COC contest a second try. They borrowed ideas from past competitors by preparing Christmas snacks, performing a skit and working on their house from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night starting a week before the deadline.

'We even bought a ladder and returned it once we were done putting up the lights,' LaScola said.

The boys estimated their house had about '100 million' lights on the outside. In addition to the lights, they used garland, red ribbon, wreaths, posters, blow-up Christmas characters and wrapping paper in the windows. All of this took 14 extension cords.

'Once we saw a mom helping a house down the street, we knew we had to step it up,' Trafis said.

The residents worked out the kinks to their many blown fuses and Christmas jingle up until 7 p.m. Nov. 30, when four adult judges and about 20 COC committee members began their drive through the student neighborhood. The group stopped for cookies and an evaluation of each registered house.

Cynthia Shafer, communication adviser, was most impressed by the song the winners wrote titled the 'Twelve Days of UD.' The residents let the judges stand on their covered porch while they braved the pouring rain dressed only in suit coats, singing their own version of the 'Twelve Days of Christmas.'

'Those guys, once I saw them, I knew it'd be hard for me to find someone who did a better job,' Shafer said.

COC publicity co-chairs Liz Sidor, junior public relations major, and Katie Przybysz, senior public relations major, announced the winners after the judges turned in their top three choices. The winning house received a certificate entitling each resident to a free hotel room and pass to events at May's Dayton to Daytona.

Jill Morgan, administrative assistant, said that even after 14 years at UD, her experience as a judge opened her eyes to another side of COC.

'Adoption is just a little piece of it [COC],' Morgan said. 'A big part is working up to it and putting the night together.'

The contest winners said the most exciting part of the contest was not the Dayton to Daytona prize. They most enjoy their bragging rights and the fact that the week of hard work brought the roommates closer together.

'Thank you Christmas on Campus,' Willman said. 'You guys did a great job.'